


Running Away

by captainamergirl



Category: General Hospital (TV 1963)
Genre: 3 part story, Alternate History, F/M, I miss these 2!, Rare Pairings, skate - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:29:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27123877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captainamergirl/pseuds/captainamergirl
Summary: Why is Kate running away from the truest love she's ever known?
Relationships: Sonny Corinthos/Kate Howard





	1. Chapter 1

**Part 1/3**  
  
She was becoming too close to Sonny once again, and that worried Kate Howard. Michael – Sonny – was moving back into her heart. Every time he flashed her those dimples, she went weak in the knees. She felt like a high school girl all over again.  
  
It wasn’t that she hated the idea of falling in love with him – it was just … well, for one, he had quite a track record with women and she wasn’t sure he was over his barracuda of an ex-wife, Carly Jacks.  
  
And two, well it was just wrong after …  
  
“After the secret I kept from him all these years,” she said out loud. She was pacing in her hotel room. She had a date with Sonny that night. He was coming to pick her up in less than twenty minutes.  
  
But she had a feeling something was going to happen tonight …  
  
“Only if you let it, Kate,” she told herself. Her voice sounded ragged to her own ears.  
  
Just leave then, a small voice told her. Just pack up your stuff and go! Before it’s too late!  
  
“Before I really fall in love with him …”  
  
You already have, the little voice taunted.  
  
“Oh shut up!” she said, shaking her head. She must be going crazy.  
  
She yanked open the closet and took out two large suitcases. She began ripping her clothes off the hangers, not caring if she was shredding the expensive material. She hurriedly stuffed them into the suitcase. One was so full that she had to sit on it in order to close it.  
  
She pulled the heavy suitcases to the door and pulled it open.  
  
Sonny was standing there, his hand raised to knock.  
  
“You must be quite eager to see me,” he said, flashing those devastatingly perfect dimples.  
  
“Um, yeah …”  
  
“Well, you’re in luck. We never have to leave your place tonight,” he said.  
  
“What do you mean?” she asked.  
  
“Boys!” He snapped his fingers and two waiters in pressed black uniforms appeared, pushing silver dinner carts. “I’m bringing dinner to you tonight, Connie.”  
  
He stepped aside to let the waiters through. “Ma’am,” they greeted her with smiles.  
  
“Hi …” Kate turned to Sonny. “I thought we were going out tonight.”  
  
“You don’t like this?”  
  
“No, its great, but …”  
  
“But what? I said we are having dinner tonight and we are.”  
  
She started to protest but it was useless when she saw him smiling back at her.  
  
Okay, I’ll just get through dinner and then I’ll leave, she thought.  
  
The waiters uncovered their dinners and set them on the table. They also poured wine into tall champagne flutes. “Thanks,” she mumbled.  
  
“Okay, boys, you can go,” Sonny said, greasing their palms with what looked like hundred dollar bills. “Thank you.”  
  
They thanked him back and left. Sonny pulled out a chair for Kate at the table. “You look beautiful, Connie,” he told her, grazing her cheek with a soft kiss. His face was slightly stubbly and it felt warm against her cheek. She smiled inspite of herself.  
  
She sat and he did the same. “It smells delicious,” she said.  
  
“It’s good too. I went over the menu carefully with my staff.”  
  
“Your staff?”  
  
“Yeah they work for me from time to time.”  
  
“So what have we got here?”  
  
“Pasta fagioli with cream sauce; steak tar-tar; garden salad with purple cabbage … And I don’t want to brag but I made the salad dressing myself and its great.”  
  
Kate smiled. She took a bite and chewed slowly. “Wow, this is delicious.”  
  
“Told you.”  
  
“My, my, Mr. Corinthos, aren’t we modest?”  
  
“Of course,” he said. His lips looked so full and soft; she wanted to kiss them so badly, but she didn’t dare.  
  
After dinner, they settled onto the couch and chatted, drinking wine.  
  
They talked about work; the summers back in Bensonhurst (they agreed they were miserably hot); past relationships (he talked about a woman named Brenda and his ex-wife, Carly; she admitted that she had been involved in a few dead end relationships that were all but forgotten now); even politics (which they disagreed on so they dropped the subject).  
  
They talked about everything BUT what she was trying so hard not to mention.  
  
“You are even more beautiful than I remember,” Sonny said.  
  
“What a line,” she said, smiling. “But thank you. It does make a girl feel good to hear a handsome man say that she’s beautiful.”  
  
“Oh you think I’m handsome?”  
  
“Of course,” Kate replied. “You know you are. You always turned heads back in Bensonhurst and I can see that you still do.”  
  
Their voices were soft. The candlelight from dinner was flickering in the background. Sonny leaned into her, and nuzzled her neck with his stubbly chin. Then he began to kiss her neck and she moaned softly.  
  
She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pried her lips open with his teeth. She felt his tongue slip inside her mouth, pressing at her teeth. She allowed his tongue to move farther. She felt hot in all the right places. It seemed to have been a lifetime since she was kissed that way.  
  
Her mind was telling her to resist but her body was telling it to shut up.  
  
He began opening her blouse. There was an unspoken agreement that they were going to make love.  
  
He pulled her shirt from off her shoulders and led a trail of kisses down her neck to the crest of her full breasts. He was reaching behind her to unfasten her bra. She was moaning, losing herself in the moment.  
  
And then suddenly he stopped …  
  
“Sonny, what is it?” She had had her eyes closed but now opened them, searching his face.  
  
“Your suitcases. I just noticed them. They’re packed. Were you going somewhere?”  
  
Kate wet her suddenly dry lips. She swallowed the lump in her throat. “Yes,” she admitted. “I was planning to leave town before you showed up.”  
  
“Why?” Sonny asked. “What are you running from?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Part 2/3**  
  
“Kate, what are you running from?” Sonny repeated, watching her face suddenly pale in response to his question.  
  
“Running?” She said. “Running … Oh I’m not running … I’m just going … on a business trip ….” It was so hard for Kate to look into those beautiful, dark eyes of his and lie to him.  
  
“Bullshit,” he said. “I could always tell when you were lying about something. Were you really planning to leave town and not say goodbye?”  
  
Kate found it hard to reply as a golf ball-sized lump had suddenly welled up in her throat. Her silence spoke volumes to Sonny.  
  
“You were. Why?” he asked. “I thought we were having a good time together. We’re good for each other and you know that so why would you just decide to up and leave?”  
  
“Sonny, it was … just time, I suppose,” Kate said lamely. She was at a loss to think of a single good reason for leaving this man except for the one thing she knew he would hate her for if he found out about.  
  
“Time? So you’re on a schedule with our relationship?” He asked. “You have enough time to make a place in my life, tempt me and tease me, remind me of why I loved you in the first place, and then just go?”  
  
Kate’s hazel eyes shot up to meet his dark ones. “Sonny, did you just say you loved me?”  
  
Sonny nodded, reaching for her hand. “Of course I do. Somehow I think I always have. In some way, I have always been waiting for you to show up at our special place so we could run away together.”  
  
Now full on tears were streaking down Kate’s face. It was so hard to hear him say he loved her because she felt the same way and things could never work out after what she had done. She loved him with all her heart and things could never be. It broke what was left of her tattered heart into little pieces.  
  
Sonny reached out to wipe away her tears but she ducked back. She felt unworthy of his love and affection.  
  
“You don’t have to be afraid of me, Connie – Kate,” Sonny said, watching her closely. She looked like the proverbial deer in the headlights and he wondered what was spooking her so badly. Was the possibility of spending her life with a man like him too much for her to take? Was she scared of his life – or just of her feelings for him? He decided to ask.  
  
“Kate, are you afraid of having feelings for me again because you think I will hurt you?”  
  
Kate shook her head, reaching for a tissue off the mantle. Even blowing her nose was done with such grace and poise, Sonny marveled. Kate was definitely a surprise to him in every way. She was a whole different person than the girl he once knew – or at least she wanted him to think so.  
  
“I am afraid of you, Sonny,” Kate admitted. “Because being around you … it reminds me of a past I want to forget.”  
  
“Life back then was hard; that’s undeniable – but was it really so terrible when we were together? I thought we were happy when it was just the two of us – sitting on the dock, skipping rocks or playing hopscotch, or just kissing and making love.” He smiled at her, wishing she would open up to him for once.  
  
“Sonny, we were happy together. I was very happy with you. But you don’t understand. I did something …” Her voice trailed off as she fought to say the words that were in her heart.  
  
“I love you, Sonny. I always have. There have been other men in my life but none of them were you. None of them were my Michael. Or my Sonny as he is now.”  
  
Sonny reached for her hands again. “You admitted you loved me. I said the same thing to you but you’re still afraid of something. You still look like you are ready to bolt out that door the second I turn my back on you.”  
  
“Sonny, it’s just … I did something .. I never told you …”  
  
“What?” He asked, his shoulders immediately stiffening in response to her words. What was she going to tell him that he knew he wouldn’t like hearing?  
  
Kate ran an unsteady hand through her short, cropped blonde hair. “God this is so hard …”  
  
“What is?”  
  
She turned to face Sonny head-on. She knew she couldn’t keep this secret anymore. He deserved to know. “Sonny, I hid something from you. Something very important that you should have known about a long time ago …”  
  
Now it was Sonny’s turn to look upset. He hated when people lied to him about anything. In his mind, it was always a betrayal. How had Kate betrayed him? Why was he suddenly feeling so sick at the idea of learning whatever she had to say?  
  
Because she was the woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, of course. The woman he wanted to grow old with …  
  
He forced himself to shove aside that thought and said, “What is it? What are you hiding from me?”  
  
Kate’s eyes poured with tears but this time Sonny made no effort to wipe them away and it broke her heart. “Sonny, you were right when you said I was running. That’s all I’ve been doing for most of my life it seems. I have tried running away from the things I was most scared of. And I was scared to admit what I had done … which was not telling you something very important a long time ago …  
  
“When you asked me to meet up that night at our special place, I was going to go but I just couldn’t make myself do it. I was too scared. I didn’t want to lose you the way I felt like I had lost everything else. So my stupid idea was, ‘throw him away before he throws you away’. I was too scared to trust in your love so I left town alone. I went to Los Angeles and three weeks later, I found out that I was pregnant …”  
  
“Oh my god,” Sonny mouthed quietly. “You were pregnant with my child?”  
  
“Yes!” Kate cried. “And I wanted to call you up and tell you so badly but I just couldn’t make myself pick up the phone. So I went through the pregnancy alone. I tried to forget sometimes that I was even pregnant so I could forget the life I left behind. I wished everything would just go away and apparently, I wished hard enough that I wished our baby away!”  
  
Sonny’s throat clogged with emotion. “What are you saying?”  
  
“He was born three months too early. He didn’t even cry when he was born,” she said, her voice breaking. “He was … he was … just so small. And he was all blue and cold. He never had a chance. They let me hold him … and ... and my heart … it broke. Forever.”  
  
Kate looked at Sonny. “I am so sor-“  
  
“Don’t even say it!” Sonny shouted. “Don’t you dare say you are sorry because there is no way you can make up for what you did.”  
  
Kate nodded and looked down helplessly. “I know …”  
  
Sonny watched her with moisture in his own eyes. “Do you know what you did, Kate?! You robbed me. You robbed me! I never got the chance to say goodbye to him. You robbed me!”  
  
“Sonny, I know,” Kate said with a sob. “I know that now. That’s why I was running because I couldn’t take the guilt and the shame of what I did. I was terrified you would find out and I never wanted you to have to suffer the way you are right now.”  
  
“Where is he? Where is my son’s … body?” Sonny asked, choking on the last word.  
  
“At St. Augustus’s in Bensonhurst. He was buried there. I brought him back to be in the town where he was conceived. Out of love. Because he was created out of love, Sonny, and you know that.”  
  
“If you loved me, you never would have done this,” Sonny said. “You stole something precious from me and now you need to leave. Go back to Paris or Milan or wherever – just leave and never come back. I never want to look at your face again.”  
  
“Sonny,” Kate cried. “Please, I –“  
  
Kate didn’t get to finish her sentence because he was already gone. She flopped down on the sofa for a moment, pulling her thin knees up to her chest, and pressing her teary face into them as she cried.  
  
Then sometime later, she wiped her face and finished packing up her things so she could leave Port Charles – and Sonny – behind forever.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Song credit: JoDee Messina

**Part 3/3**  
  
 _The following day …_  
  
“Turn here, Max,” Sonny said from the back of his limo. Max turned the car right and they pulled down a quiet side street.  
  
“Stop here,” Sonny said. They parked in front of a small house. The paint had once been blue but was peeling so much now that it was hard to distinguish the color. The house looked even worse than it had when Sonny was growing up there.  
  
“Bensonhurst in all its glory,” he muttered, climbing out of the back of the limo and walking through the dry, brown grass to the front of the house.  
  
It had been over twenty years since he had seen this miserable place and the memories of cowering under the bed from his stepfather were as fresh in his mind as ever.  
  
He turned and glanced across the street. In his mind’s eye, he saw a small red-haired girl walk up to the little boy that Sonny used to be. He saw the little boy sitting on the porch working on eating a half-melted Popsicle on one of the hottest days of the year. On this day, Adela had dared to serve Deke orange juice when he wanted coffee for breakfast. He had beaten her until her lip split and her eye was inflamed and almost looked black. When Sonny had tried to stop him, Deke had chased him all the way up the stairs and slammed Sonny’s head into the footboard on his little bed until Sonny was half-passed out. Then to add to his pain, he had forced Sonny to put his fingers in the crevice of the door while he slammed it closed on them repeatedly.  
  
When Deke had tired of Adela and Sonny’s screams of pain and terror, he had left them to their own devices while he took a nap. Adela had wrapped Sonny’s little fingers in a towel with an ice pack and handed him the Popsicle and told him to go outside.  
  
While Sonny had been sitting on the porch, the little girl he would come to know as Connie – and later Kate Howard – had walked over and introduced herself.  
  
 _“Hey, my name’s Connie, what’s yours?”  
  
“Michael,” he mumbled.  
  
“Hey, how come you look all banged up?” She asked, perching a hand on her left hip.  
  
“Why do you care?” he snapped.  
  
“Because you look funny is all. I just moved in across the street. You want to play hopscotch with me?”  
  
“Hopscotch is for girls,” he said, as if it should be obvious.  
  
“Who cares?” Connie shrugged. “You look bored anyway.”  
  
Michael thought it over for a minute and then stood, walking over to her. “Okay I guess but don’t tell anyone.”  
  
Connie mocked zipping her lips and throwing away the key. “It's just our little secret, Mikey.” She drew a pattern on the ground with a big piece of yellow chalk and presented it proudly to him. “It looks kind of dopey but it will do,” she said, eyeing her artwork critically.  
  
“I guess …”  
  
“Hey, cheer up,” Connie said. She opened the pocket of her overalls and pulled out a pack of gum. “Want some gum, Mikey?” she asked, unwrapping a chewy pink piece and ripping it in half. “I only got one left but I’ll share.”  
  
“Okay.”  
  
And Michael had taken his half and popped it into his mouth. They had played hopscotch until the sun went down and Adela called Sonny in for dinner.  
  
“Hey, see you later, Mikey,” Kate said and skipped away.  
  
“Yeah,” he said, waving after her and then trudging inside. That night he didn’t care that Deke was still in a bad mood and had yelled at him for hours. He actually, hardly even noticed at all._  
  
XoXoXo  
  
The memory faded slightly into the recesses of Sonny’s mind as he walked back to the limo and climbed inside.  
  
Max watched him in the mirror. “Where to next, boss?” He asked.  
  
“There is a church up the street - go there,” Sonny said, shutting the door. He looked back at the little house and yard as they pulled away, half-expecting to see a dark-haired boy and a little auburn-haired girl in overalls playing hopscotch. But there was no one there at all.  
  
XoXoXo  
  
Kate found the little grave near the back of St. Augustus’s Cemetery and knelt beside it. “I didn’t know what to bring you, so I brought you blue flowers – the same kind you were buried with.”  
  
She set the bouquet on the little grave and traced the boy’s name etched in the cold stone. “Junior, I’m so sorry, baby,” she cried. “I’m sorry I robbed you of the chance to be ever be held by your father. I’m sorry I never come to see you anymore. It’s just so hard to be here. I didn’t want to have to face the memories of you. Face all my dreams that died right along with you. But telling your daddy about you forced me to realize I needed to face the past. Come and see you. Because I needed to be here. I just wish Sonny was here beside me right now.”  
  
“I am,” a familiar voice came from behind her. She turned to glance up at him.  
  
“Sonny,” she whispered, wiping away her tears.  
  
“Hey,” he said softly. He knelt down beside her in the damp earth. “You came.”  
  
Kate nodded. “I realized I couldn’t run away anymore. I’m glad you came too. I’m just sorry it’s too late to say goodbye.”  
  
“He knows we’re here,” Sonny said, making the sign of the cross as he turned to face the little gravestone. “You named him Michael Junior.”  
  
Kate nodded. “I had to. If I couldn’t give him the life he deserved, then at least I could give him the name that he deserved.”  
  
Sonny sat there watching the grave. “Hey, son, I wish we could have met. I wish you could have grown up big and strong and have been a good example to your little brothers and sister – and I know you would have been.”  
  
Sonny’s eyes moistened along with Kate’s and he suddenly reached out blindly, grasping for her hand. He closed his fingers around hers and squeezed them tightly. She smiled a little in response and turned again to address the little headstone.  
  
“Your daddy is a good man,” she said. “A strong man. I know now that he would have been an excellent father to you. I’ve seen him with your brothers and sister and he is so gentle with them. He would have been so proud of you.” Her voice broke and she could no longer speak as a great sob welled up in her throat. She bit her lip to keep from releasing it.  
  
“Your mom is an even better person, Junior,” Sonny said. “She loved you. I know she did. I can see it in her eyes.” He turned to watch her as he wiped the tears from her cheeks.  
  
 _I don’t know how I survived, in this cold  
And empty world  
For all this time I only know that I’m alive  
Because you love me_  
  
“I’m so sorry, Sonny,” she said, grasping his hand and holding it to her pale cheek. “I have no right to ask this but can you ever forgive me for what I’ve done?”  
  
Sonny considered this for a long moment and then said, “Only if you can forgive me for the harsh things I said last night. I was pretty out of line and there was no excuse as pissed off as I was.”  
  
“You have nothing to be sorry for,” Kate said immediately. “I surprised you. You had a right to be angry. I just want to know that you don’t hate me.”  
  
“I could never hate you, Kate,” he said. “You taught me how to hopscotch and sneak into Yankees’ games. And you gave me gum …”  
  
 _When I recall what I’ve been through  
There’s some things  
That I wish I didn’t do but now I do the things I do  
Because you love me_  
  
“Huh?”  
  
“The first day we met. You came right up to my porch and wanted to be friends. You said I looked all banged up and you acted like you didn’t even care. You offered me a piece of gum and you taught me how to play hopscotch. And I’m telling you right now that that was one of the most thoughtful gifts anyone has ever given me.”  
  
  
“Why?” Kate asked in bewilderment.  
  
“Because you didn’t just offer me half of your gum, you gave me your friendship when I had no one and nothing. And later, you gave me your heart. And that’s all a man truly needs.”  
  
“Sonny, I –“  
  
“What? Say it,” he prompted, holding onto both of her hands.  
  
“You are so amazing. And I regret every day of my life keeping you in the dark about your own son. You said it last night – I robbed you. And I robbed him,” she said, removing one hand from Sonny’s to caress the name again on the little headstone.  
  
Sonny nodded. “Last night when I left your suite I was determined to put you out of my mind forever; I was determined to hate you but this morning I knew I had to come here, and when I pulled up in front of my old house today, I remembered everything from my past and the way you saved me and I owe all that to you. We’ve both made mistakes and because of that I can’t hate you.”  
  
“But I hate what I did. I – I hate... myself,” she said softly.  
  
“You may have done the wrong thing, Kate, but you didn’t do it viciously. I saw that when I walked into the grave yard and saw you crying over our baby’s grave. I knew you never meant to hurt anyone. You didn’t try to hurt me and the thing is, you came clean to me even though you didn’t have to. You were honest. How can I hate you for that?” he asked quietly.  
  
“And, Kate,” he added, “you can’t hate yourself because you are too good of a person to keep punishing yourself. Even if you were misguided, you thought you were protecting me.”  
  
“Sonny, I love you,” Kate said. “I know that I always have.”  
  
“I love you too,” Sonny said. “You were the best friend I ever had growing up and now you’re my becoming my best friend all over again. I love the woman you are today. Every little thing about her that you think I despise … I actually love …”  
  
 _And now that you’re in my life I’m so glad I’m alive  
‘Cause you showed me the way and I know now  
How good it can be  
Because you love me_  
  
Kate smiled. “So is there any way we can be friends again?”  
  
“I want to be a lot more than friends,” he answered, smiling back at her. “But we’ll work on that.”  
  
They sat beside the little grave with their son’s name on it until darkness fell. Then they each kissed the palm of their hands and pressed them to the little gravestone. Sonny placed his fingers over Kate’s then and intertwined them.  
  
Then with promises to return soon, Michael and Connie, and the people they had become - Sonny Corinthos and Kate Howard, left the cemetery hand in hand.  
  
On the way back to the limo, Kate dug some gum out of her purse and ripped it in half. “Hey, Mikey, want some gum?” she asked, handing him the other piece.  
  
 _With all my heart and all my soul  
I’m loving you and never will let go  
And every day I’ll let it show  
Because you love me_  
  
They got into the car and he popped the piece in his mouth with a smile. She then rested her head on his shoulder and they rode back to Port Charles in each other’s arms.  
  
 _Because you love me …_  
  
 **Finis**


End file.
